


Fractions

by OrionRedde, Shyrstyne



Series: Cometverse [11]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Nonbinary Character, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 12:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17981003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrionRedde/pseuds/OrionRedde, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shyrstyne/pseuds/Shyrstyne
Summary: Nearly a full year in Twilight Town, your bar is almost ready, and it's time to celebrate. Your favourite ice cream customers haven't been around much lately though..





	Fractions

**Author's Note:**

> for a place as sleepy as Twilight Town, people are really Not Okay. The twist is you don't even know the half of it.

Your last week at the ice cream place goes by in a blur. You’ve finally got all your permits in place, paperwork in order, saved your munny, and now all that’s left is to some renovations on your bar-to-be! You can restart your small business properly!

You’re so busy that you almost don’t realize just how long it’s been since you last saw your favourite clown cult club members until Xion quietly steps in only a few days before your last shift. 

You were always worried about the three of them, especially as their visits had become scarce and when you  _ did  _ see them they’d all seemed quiet and stressed. You’d tried to approach Axel about it but he’d essentially brushed you off. You tried not to feel hurt about it. Something was clearly going on, but none of them were willing to share.

You kept yourself open and friendly when they did come in, but you hadn’t seen them in long enough that you were genuinely worried you wouldn’t be able to tell them you wouldn’t be at the ice cream place any more before you left.

So when Xion finally comes in, you can’t help a quiet sigh of relief.

Xion is always pretty quiet but today there is not a word spoken, standing at a distance, unnaturally still and staring at the board of flavours. 

You like Xion. You remember talking about all sorts of things, from seashells being collected for Roxas when he was sick, something silly Axel had said while they were hanging out, a new discovery made while out exploring.... you feel as close to their group as you really can while from behind a counter. Sometimes you wish you could join them, but you know you’re just the salesperson. You’re not really friends and you don’t want to intrude. But you can’t help but feel concerned when ten minutes pass without a single movement. It reminds you a little of when Roxas first came in with Xion, still and silent with the hood always up. You wonder if something’s wrong. 

“Hey, uh-” You start, and falter. Xion’s face turns towards you. Had the hood already been up when Xion came in? You can’t recall. 

“I’m starting my own place soon.” You start again. “It’s a bar so I can’t serve you kids much, but there’ll be food and you’re welcome to drop by once it’s open. I’d miss you guys if you weren’t around all the time.”  You try for a smile, but it’s a little forced. “If you see Roxas and Axel could you let them know?”

Xion smiles. Or you think so anyways. How is that hood so dark?  
  
“I’ll try. Things have been.. Well. I’ll try.” And that’s all you get for an answer. Xion leaves, and it has a sense of finality that feels profoundly heavy in your heart, though you’re not sure why. It’s another half hour before you realise that kid hadn’t bought anything. What was their name again…?   
  
Life continues on. You put blood sweat and tears into renovating your new hole-in-the-wall, and after a long month your bar is open to the public. The book Squall got you about drink mixing gets a place of honour on the back wall. It’s old and even more ratty than when he’d found it, but you like having the reminder, even if you have everything inside it memorised. You accrue a modest crowd on opening day, and it’s enough for you to call it a success.   
  
You don’t see your two favourite ice cream customers. It’s fine, Roxas is too young for this place anyways. You kind of wish Axel would have stopped by though. You remind yourself that he would have had no way of knowing what you were doing. You wander by the ice cream place a few times hoping to catch him, but have no luck.  
  
You keep busy, get to know your regulars, learn who’s who and even earn yourself a couple favours with a local pack of Weres. You try not to think about how you haven’t seen either of them around town all week. You don’t really think about it until a few weeks later, late on a quiet weekday, Axel slips in and takes a seat, ordering something hard without once looking at you.   
  
“Hello to you too.” You can’t help a little sarcasm. He looks up briefly, a touch of surprise on his face, though that’s all. He looks.. tired, in a word. Worn thin at the edges. And smells a little of campfire? You may not have a Were’s sense of smell but he’s usually got some kind of earthfire scent to him. Today that smell is strong, nearly more charcoal than woodsmoke.   
  
“Oh, it’s you.” He glances at the door like he’s halfway considering leaving. It’s a confusing reaction -- last you’d seen him he’d seemed pretty stressed, but you hadn’t thought it was because of you.   
  
“Wow, just gonna leave me out in the cold like that, huh.” You put his drink in front of him. He shoots it. It was not a cup that was meant to be shot but he does it anyway.   
  
“Dude are you okay?” Okay that wasn’t exactly professional but dammit you care. He glares at the counter, silently.   
  
He doesn’t answer but gestures for another drink, and against your better instincts you oblige.  
  
This continues the rest of the night. He doesn’t have the usual drunk tells but you’ve been a bartender long enough to know he’s hammered within only a few drinks. You wonder if he’s eaten anything today. A plate of fries is placed in front of him (“on the house” you say) and then you start surreptitiously watering down his drinks, though not so much he’ll call you on it. You have a feeling there might be a lot of drinks tonight.   
  
You let him stay, long after everyone else has left and you’ve closed the doors. He’s fiddling with a stick, staring down at it with an intensity you would normally reserve for painters and the hyperfocused. He must have brought it in with him, because you don’t carry ice cream sticks at the bar. 

He looks like he can’t decide if he’s angry or if he wants to cry.

You take a seat in front of him, on the other side of the counter.    
  
You bring out three shot glasses, and a bottle. Something light, since you know how hard he’s been drinking, and you plan on going to bed after. You place the three glasses in a row. one in front of him, one in front of you, and one between.    
  
“What’s this?” It’s the first thing he’s said since his dismissive arrival.    
  
“I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have to tell me,” you start pouring a small drink in each glass. “But I know grief when I see it.”   
  
You pick up the glass in front of you, clinking it softly against the glass in the centre, and then raising it towards Axel in invitation. “A toast for the lost, whoever they may be.”   
  
For a moment you swear he’s about to cry, and then he scowls.    
  
“I’m going to get him back.”   
  
You frown. Oh boy.    
  
“Maybe I don’t have the full story, but that’s generally not how life works.” Even if it was merely an emotional loss, and not a physical one. You couldn’t force people to do things.

Well you could, but it never ends well.   
  
He snorts derisively. “Everyone always thinks they’re right.” He mutters, barely loud enough to hear. The phrase seems almost out of context, as you try to parse his meaning.

He casts his gaze down briefly, and then stands up, dropping some munny on the counter as he does. He doesn’t even sway. He looks at the glass, and for a moment you think he’s going to ignore your little offering entirely, but then taps his glass against the centre one, shoots it, and places it on the counter with an almost cordial nod to you.

And then he disappears in a swath what you swear is black smoke. You stare for a moment, and then you take the centre glass and shoot it back.    
  
Just what were you getting yourself into?   
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  


Axel comes out of the portal somewhere in Agrabah. It takes him a few seconds to realize he’s significantly overshot The World That Never Was and somehow he’s now facedown in the sand. He belatedly remembers that portalling while drunk is never advisable. He thinks about trying again but decides against it. The sand is pretty comfortable anyways.

(The sand is not, in fact, comfortable and when he wakes up four hours later with a pounding headache and covered in grit he’ll regret it. Just like he regrets everything in his life lately. But who’s counting.)


End file.
